Israel embassies in India and Georgia targeted by bombs

Israel embassies in India and Georgia targeted by bombs

Three bombs targeted Israeli embassies in Georgia, India, and the Netherlands today.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Two bombs targeted Israeli embassies in Georgia and India today, a day after the anniversary of the 2008 assassination of Hezbollah mastermind Imad Mugniyeh, Reuters reported. Reports of an additional attack in Amsterdam were reported in Haaretz but are otherwise unconfirmed.

"There was one attempted attack, and one successful, as it were," Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry, told Reuters. "In both cases, the people concerned worked with the Israeli embassies." In India, the wife of an Israeli diplomat was "moderately" wounded, according to Haaretz.

No one claimed responsibility for the bombs, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately blamed Iran, the Washington Post reported.

"Iran, which is behind these attacks, is the greatest exporter of terror in the world,” Netanyahu said.

According to Reuters, Iran has rejected the accusation: "Any terrorist attack is condemned (by Iran) and we strongly reject the untrue comments by an Israeli official," Mehdi Nabizadeh, Iran's ambassador to India, was quoted as saying in the official IRNA news agency.

The Associated Press reported that Shota Uitashvili, spokesman for the Georgian Interior Ministry, said a driver noticed a package attached to his car and called the police. The driver was a Georgian member of the staff of Israel's embassy in Tbilisi, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said, "It just shows that Israel and its citizens face terror inside and outside of Israel," according to the Jerusalem Post. "We deal with it every day. We know how to identify exactly who is responsible for the attack and who carried it out."

The attacks come a day after the four year anniversary of the assassination of Hezbollah deputy Imad Mugniyeh, considered by experts to be the mastermind behind some of Hezbollah's most dramatic attacks. He was killed in a 2008 car bombing in Damascus, Syria. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah promised to avenge Mugniyeh's death.

Israel had advised its embassies to be on high alert ahead of the Feb. 12 anniversary, though the attacks came a day later, on Feb. 13.